Feather plucker for poultry



May 29 1951 F. A. HoDGEs 2,554,671

FEATHER PLUCKER FOR POULTRY Filed Feb. l5, 1946 Patented May 29, l`1951 UNITED STATES-'PATENT OFFICE 2,554,671 FEATHER PLUCKER FOR POULTRY Fridolin A. Hodges, Chicago, Ill.` lApplication February 15, 1946, Serial No. 647,946

This invention relates to machines for plucking feathers from poultry.

Plucking feathers from poultry by hand has been an extremely tedious and time-consuming operation and in order to more rapidly and less l' tediously pluck feathers from poultry, machines for doing so have been developed. Such machines usually employ an enclosed rotating drum having holes on the sides thereof for rigidly receiving flexible rubber fingers. The poultry to be dressed is first scalded and then applied to the rubber fingers of the rapidly rotating drum. The rubber fingers tear the feathers from the poultry and in so doing they flex under the pressure of the poultry applied thereto and the amount of iiexing depends upon the Jamount of pressure applied thereto. This pressure atV times becomes quite high when the poultry is forcefully pressed against the lingers to remove feath ers from crevices in the poultry such as under the wings and legs thereof. Of course, the rate of fiexure of the rubber fingers is tremendous due to the high speed of rotation of the drum. Experience has shown that the life of the rubber fingers is limited, for the multiple flexing thereof soon deteriorates them to a point Where they break. Also, the flexing action tends to loosen the fingers from the drum and in time they come loose from the drum, especially when relatively high pressures are applied thereto. The rigidly mounted rubber fingers, when flexed sufficiently to enable plucking feathers from the crevices of the poultry, often tear the skin of the poultry where the pressure between the poultry and the fingers is relatively great. Because of the closed drum arrangement and the manner of mounting the rubber fingers therein, sanitary conditions are very poor and the arrangement is difficult to clean and maintain clean.

The principal object of this invention is to provide an improved machine for plucking feathers wherein the enclosed drum and rubber fingers are entirely eliminated so that the above outlined problems and difficulties of the known machines are entirely avoided.

In carrying out this object of the invention, I provide an open rotating frame having spaced discs mounted on a rotary shaft with a plurality of circumferentially arranged rods secured between the discs. These rods pivotally carry a plurality of pivoted hammers which are extended radially by the rotary motion of the frame. The poultry to be dressed is first scalded and then applied to the extended hammersv ofA the rapidly rotating open frame.l The'. hammers knockthe e claims. (o1. 174-114) feathers from the poultry rather than tear them from the poultry as in the case of the known devices. Since the hammers are held extended by centrifugal force they may be readily .depressed by the poultry when it is applied to the hammers and the force tending to extend the hammers is substantially the same regardless of whether the fingers are extended or depressed. In other words, the feather knocking force of the hammers is about the same for the depressed hammers as it is for the extended hammers. In this way the hammers may readily follow the contour of the poultry being dressed and uniformly knock the feathers therefrom including the feathers in the crevices of the poultry and they do so without any tendency to tear the skin of the poultry. Because of the pivoted hammer arrangement, the force for knocking the feathers from the poultry is ductile and uniform rather than resilient and nonuniform as is the case when stationary rubber fingers are utilized for tearing feathers from the poultry.

Preferably the hammers pivoted to the rods are spaced from each other to provide ease of operation and the hammers of adjacent rows are staggered so that all feathers are removed.

Also, the hammers may be graduated in length, being longer at the ends of the rods than at the center of the rods, so that a concave featherknocking surface is presented. This has the effect of maintaining the poultry adjacent the center of the machine and to assist in preventing the Ipoultry from sliding sidewise during the feather plucking operation.

Further, provision may be made for limting the amount of pivotal movement of the hammers so that they may be depressed only a given amount. This is particularly advantageous as when cleaning heavy poultry such as turkeys and the like.

Further objects of this invention reside in the details of construction of the feather plucking machine and the operation of the various parts thereof.

Other objects and advantages will become apparent to those skilled in the art upon reference to the accompanying specification, claims, and drawing, in which- Fig. 1 is a perspective view of the feather plucker of this invention;

Fig. 2 is a perspective view of one of the hammers utilized in the invention;

Fig. 3 is a sectional view taken substantially alongthe line 3-3 of Fi`g.2;

`spaced labout the shaft I3. secured to the rdiscs 26 by nuts 29 and 30 Vand by Fig. 4 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 4-4 of Fig. 1;

Fig. 5 is a sectional view taken substantially along the line 5-5 of Fig. 4; and

Fig. 6 is an elevational view of a modif-led form of hammer.

The feather plucking apparatus includes a frame or housing l having a front Wall II, side walls I2, and a rear wall having an upstanding arcuate wall I3 forming a backguard for the. apparatus. The housing I0 is mounted on a framework including legs I4 which may be provided with skirts I5.

The side walls I2 -of the housing i0 Vinclude bearings Il rotatably carrying a shaft I8. The shaft I8 carries a pulley I9 driven througha-belt 20 by a pulley 2| operated by'a-lmotor 22 .carried by the framework supporting the housing l0. The motor operates in a direction 'to cause counterclockwise rotation of the pulley I9 and Vsha'ft I B, as viewedin Fig. l.

The shaft I8 carries a pair of c-ollars24iadjacent the bearings Il' which are heldin placegion Athe shaft It by set screws 25.

Circular discs v26 are welded 'to the collars 24 and are provided around their circumferential edgesfwith yprotecting flanges 2l. A plurality of `rods 2S extend between the discs 26 and are circumferentially The rods 2.8 :are

cotter pins 6I. The protective fianges'2'1 of:the

ydiscsZli overhang the nuts Sil and 'Cotter pins 13I 'so thatentanglement with the sameis prevented.

The rods "28 carry a plurality of hammers 32 which are -held in spaced-apart relation byfsleeves 33. 'As illustrated, the hammers 32 on adjacent rods .23 are staggered with respect to each other.

The hammers 32 are formed of a material such as rubber, rubbercomposition, plastic or wood, and are provided at one end with 4an opening f3.5 therethrough. The rods 28 extend-through-the openings 35 so that the hammers 32 are fpivotally mounted thereon. IThe other end of the'hammers may be provided with an enlargement or extended portion 36 on 'the trailing side. The leadingside of the hammer 32 provides a .substantially uniform striking face of'substantialareaand may be provided with a plurality of 1ser-rations'i31 which operate to assist 'in knocking the vfeathers from the poultry.

As is clearly shown in Fig. 4,' the hammers may be of progressively different lengths, beingV larger at the ends of the rods than atethe center thereof. By reason of this construction a concavefeather knocking surface is provided which acts tomaintain the poultry being dressed-in the center of fthe machine and to prevent sliding of vthefpoulgtry sideways thereon.

The discs 2S carried bythe shaft I8 andthe 4 the poultry. The operator then may rotate the poultry to present uncleaned portions thereof to the hammers and in this fashion all of the feathers may be removed from the poultry.

When the hammers engage the poultry in knocking the feathers therefrom, they may be depressed somewhat against the action of the centrifugal force and, of course, the amount of depression depends upon the force with which 1thepOuItry isl applied to the hammers. Since the centrifugal force imparted to the hammers is ,substantially constant, the force for knocking VVthe feathers from the poultry is a ductile force Y-gwhilig-is substantially uniform regardless of how far the hammers are extended or depressed. Thus thehammers may readily follow the con- A tour. of.- the .poultry and knock the feathers from the crevices of the poultry with substantially the same'force that the feathers are knocked from the other portions of the poultry. By reason of ,thisgductilefeather-knocking force, danger of tearing the skin of the poultry is at a minimum. `The:feathers'knockedfrom the poultry .are generally directed down intothehousins orframe :.I' but in ordento prevent scattering .of lthe Afeathers andsplashing due to the water on the .feathers Vresulting from the prior scalding, the machineyis-provided with fthe backguard I3. 'lhefeathers are collected inthe frame or housing I0 and-may be removed therefromthrougha suitable door arrangement inthe rear thereof.

flnplucking `Afeathers fromu heavy A poultry it maypbe desirable to flirnit the amount `ofde pression of the hammersf the liearier'poultrv, such turkeys, having aftendency ytoqdepress Ithe -;hammers more :than thevlighter poultry, auch as chiekens- 1n thisfrespectthe hammers maygbe.constructedgfas-shown in Fig.V 6 in-Vwhich theyhammerl-isdesignated at ,49. Itpreferably isimade of `--rubloer Yor-rubrber composition :al- `thoughitrnay be made fromvgwood ofplastic. .ltincludesna-hole4| -for vvreceiving the rod 28 .ofithe rotating vfra-me uponwhichjt is pivoted las inthe 1,previous modification HIt also intcludes an .arcuateslot l42 concentric with the -hole 4I for receiving aged-43 extendinglbetween ftheidiscs 7.26. f'he -ltodf Cooperating with -lthe -slot.43 limits the .extent-of pivotal movement kofthehammer 1,470 about therod23 so v that the hammerqrnaygbe :depressed by the poultry only Athroughyan .angle -Adetermi-ned Vby the extent of the .arcuate-slot. AThus,-vvfhenheavy poultry is applied against theyhammers 14,6 they cannot .be Completelydepressed Yand will operate to `:knockfeathersefficiently from the heavy poultry. \Asin,theprevious modification, the :ham- -vfmersq40gmay be provided with serrationslM andv a. trailing :extension 45.

It is also desirablefto-varythe speed ofrorods 28 provide an open frame rotating aboutthe .v60 '/aOn-;0f'xlherifflme @pending 11.13011 .the Weight axis of the shaft I3, which framepivotally-carries the hammers 32. Since the frame is` open,-.sa ni tary conditions in the machine are very good` and the machine may be readily cleaned.

.and type of --poultrybeigng dressed. The .heavier .thefpoultry and the tougher the kfeathers the .greatenshould be -thegspeed Aofrotation Vfor this appliesn-greater extending forceto the ham- In operation the motor 22 rotates theopen mers With a resultant-.glieater 4feather,krlOSkframe away from the operator standingy in lfront of the machine. As the open frame rotatesthe hammers 32 are held extended by thecentriugal force imparted thereto. The poultry -to; be

dressed is grasped by the legs by the operator and is first scalded and thenapplied torthefea-ther vplucking machine. The poultry is laid ontop of the feather knocking surfacefpresented by the "hammers 32 Aand as theiwframe; rotates the hammers 32 operatetoknockrthesfeathersifrom .17ineldedi1amsaandi prior art.

I claim as my invention:

1. A hammer for a poultry feather plucker comprising an elongated member having a leading side and a trailing side and having a hole therethrough at one end and parallel to the leading and trailing sides for pivotally mounting the hammer on the poultry feather plucker, an extended portion at the other end of the hammer on the trailing Aside of the hammer, and serrations on the leading side of the hammer.

2. A hammerfor a poultry feather plucker comprising, an elognated member having a leading side and a trailing side and having a hole therethrough at one end and parallel to the leading and trailing sides for pivotally mounting the hammer on the poultry feather plucker, the leading side being substantially uniform and of substantial area and provided with serrations.

3. A feather plucker for poultry comprising, a rotary frame having a plurality of hammer pivoting rods parallel to the axis of rotation of the frame, a plurality of hammers pivotally mounted on the hammer pivoting rods and held extended by the rotary motion of the frame for knocking feathers from the poultry applied thereto, said pivotally mounted hammers comprising an elongated member having a leading side and a trailing side and having a hole therethrough at one end and parallel to the leading and trailing sides for receiving said hammer pivoting rods for pivotally mounting the hammers thereon, the leading sides of said hammers being substantially uniform and of substantial area and provided with serrations.

4. A feather plucker for poultry comprising, an elongated rotary frame rotatable about a longitudinal axis and comprising spaced end discs and a plurality of circumferentially spaced rods parallel to the axis of rotation of the frame for connecting the end discs and for pivotally mounting hammers, a plurality of hammers pivotally mounted on the rods and held extended by the rotary motion of the frame for knocking feathers from the poultry applied thereto, said pivotally mounted hammers comprising an elongated member having a leading side and a trailing side and having a hole therethrough at one end and parallel to the leading and trailing sides for receiving said rods for pivotally mounting the hammers thereon, the leading sides of said hammers being substantially uniform and of substantial area and provided with serrations;

5. A hammer for a poultry feather plucker comprising, an elongated member having a leading side and a trailing side and having a hole therethrough at one end and parallel to the leading and trailing sides for pivotally mounting the hammer on the poultry feather plucker, the leading side being substantially uniform and of substantial area and provided with serrations, and said hammer having an arcuate slot therethrough parallel to the hole for limiting the pivotal movement of the hammer.

6. A feather plucker for poultry comprising, a rotary frame having a plurality of hammer pivoting rods parallel to the axis of rotation of the frame, a plurality of hammers pivotally mounted on the hammer pivoting rods and held extended by the rotary motion of the frame for knocking feathers from the poultry applied thereto, said pivotally mounted hammers comprising an elongated member having a leading side and a trailing side and having a hole therethrough at one end and parallel to the leading and trailing sides for receiving said hammer pivoting rods for pivotally mounting the hammers thereon, the leading sides of said hammers being substantially uniform and of substantial area and provided with serrations, said frame having a plurality of other rods parallel to and adjacent the hammer pivoting rods, and said hammers having an arcuate slot therethrough parallel to the holes therein for receiving said other rods for limiting the pivotal movement of the hammers.

FRIDOLIN A. HODGES.

REFERENCES CITED The following references are of record in the le of this patent:

UNITED STATES PATENTS Number Name Date 1,694,018 Mudge et al. Dec. 4, 1928 2,300,157 Hunt Oct. 27, 1942 2,305,232 Barker Dec. 15, 1942 2,328,770 Barker Sept. 7, 1943 2,337,201 Johnson' Dec. 21, 1943 2,362,371 Haist Nov. 7, 1944 2,412,108 Toti et al. Dec. 3, 1946 FOREIGN PATENTS Number Country Date 11,143 Great Britain 1887 

